September 30, 2003

Bush LIIIEEEDDDD!!!! Part D'oh!

What the hell kind of name is Plame, anyway? I mean, what the fuck*, "Plame"? Where did the boat that carried that name into the world come from? Is it German (derived from the name of the von Plämmensingenstrassenecken family that had to flee their ancient fiefdom of Höhenblücherdienstagmittwochstein in the seventeenth century due to a falling out between the morganatic Duke of Upper Farvergknucklesandwich and Count Otto of Bad Medizin)? Or English? ("There's always been a Plame to carry on the family name in our village on the Thames!") Or did some clerk at immigration come in late with a hangover, see the collection of c's, z's, and other letters God Almighty meant to be separated by vowels and say: "Fuck* it, you're Mr. Plame from now on" to the hapless Czech immigrant standing meekly before him.

That's the best you can come up with? A CIA operative is outed, putting your precious national security in danger (not to mention her missions and possibly her life)... and the best you can come up with is a tease about her name? I mean, I know you've never been big on burden of proof or relevance, but... her name? Please.

Fair enough... ironic as hell, but fair enough. Really, I was just surprised that your level of vitriol was not only tempered, but pretty much gone in favor of a really immature jibe at someone who has been wronged in a big way, whether by the White House or not.

I don't understand that. I mean, I've seen you do better than that with less. What gives?

No, it couldn't have been master! Master is good and kind, and gives us wriggly fishes from his table, so juicy sweet! No, no, never master!

But why would the names of lady spiesies be in the newspapers? It's so confusing, it makes our brainses feel all swirly and bad!

No, master never said those nassty things! Never! It was the lady spysy herself who did it, never master! Gollum! Gollum!

It must have been ... libruhlss!! Yes, libruhs, all conspirings and scheme-ings! Tricksy, sneaksy, and false! Libruhls have always hated the precious! They want to destroy the precious! But we won't them, will we, precious! We will wring their necks!

Besides, nobody knows if this chick was a covert operative or not. And if she was, why did her husband take a high-profile assignment like going to Africa? And why did he start shooting his mouth off to the newspapers, if he was worried about secrecy?

First, the Plame affair is not the work of the Dems or the damn liberals or left/liberal Blogistan. The CIA formally requested the Justice Department to investigate this matter. George Tenet himself is involved. That means that if the Dems, the damn liberals, and left/liberal Blogistan decided the Plame affair was a bore, it would still proceed.

Second, that Valerie Plame has an entry in Who's Who or did not otherwise disguise her name doesn't matter a bit. It was not her name that needed to be kept secret, it was her activities as a covert operative—and she was a covert operative, as retired CIA analyst Larry Johnson has confirmed. The attempts of Novak, et alia to portray the matter otherwise are as disingenuous as Clinton's nonsense about the meaning of the word "is." But as much as I dislike the Great Triangular, I think that blowing an agent's cover is higher on the scale of high crimes and misdemeanors than getting blown by an intern.

Third, Wilson is not a Demohack. He served under Clinton, but also under Bush the Elder, and Ronald Reagan. Bush the Elder praised him for his service in Iraq, when he sheltered Americans at the embassy and other diplomatic facilities, in defiance of Saddam Hussein's threat to execute anyone who did not turn over foreign nationals. He gave press briefings with a noose about his neck, explaining this by saying "If you want to execute me, I'll bring my own [expletive] rope."

Last, I find the inability of the administration's uncritical defenders to keep the chronology straight disingenuous. Glenn Reynolds wonders why someone with Wilson's views got the job of investigating nuclear weapons, posting a link to another's weblogger's report of a talk Wilson gave—after he had gone public with his story and his wife's cover was blown.

If there are any honest, honorable conservatives left, they'd be saying, "I supported the war, and believe what we've done there is the best for world security and the people of Iraq. The President acts in good faith and with the best interest of the country in his heart and mind. But this situation is a disgrace, and the President should take it upon himself to ask for the resignations of the staff members and officials who did this."

Sasha’s right. There just hasn’t been any proof that Plame was covert. All the evidence I’ve seen points in the other direction.

Retired CIA analyst Larry Johnson confirmed that the 40 year old Plame was working undercover for three decades. Was she a child prodigy?

If there were any honest, honorable leftists left, they'd be saying, "The President acts in good faith and with the best interest of the country in his heart and mind. Despite this, we hate him more than the murderous terrorists and Muslim fundamentalists who seek to destroy us and our way of life. We know that the Clinton impeachment was a waste of money and time, it did nothing to help the country, and yet we are doing everything in our power to prove drag the country through the mud again, because we want revenge – for the stolen election, for Whitewater, for everything bad that’s ever happened to us. If this scandal doesn’t do the trick, we’ll dig up another one, and another one, we’ll never stop until Bush is destroyed..because we hate him. With our last breath, we will spit at him. For hate’s sake - we hate him…

Anyway, if the left was made up of good and honest people they’d say what I’m telling them to say. Not like I'm putting words in anyone's mouth or anything.

Plame was hardly a deep cover secret squirrel; I doubt if she is currently scurrying around Baghdad, popping caps into Ba'athist activists- at most she would have been paid pin-money to eavesdrop on pissed Africans around the dinner table.

Sure, but humor often reflects core attitudes, such as smugness. As in, this or that way of constructing language seems odd to me, so let's diss the whole thing. As opposed to having the humility to admit no one language is superior, and avoid such cheap shots altogether.